EMDA_LOOP · OPTIMAL LOW-NOISE ENERGY-EFFICIENT ELECTRICAL MACHINES AND DRIVES FOR AUTOMOTIVE APPLICATIONS

OPTIMAL LOW-NOISE ENERGY-EFFICIENT ELECTRICAL MACHINES AND DRIVES FOR AUTOMOTIVE APPLICATIONS

Developing new and energy efficient low-noise electrical machines and drives represents an emergent task and challenge for the automotive industry suppliers, mainly taking into account the continuous increasing electrification of the vehicles. Moreover, it becomes inevitable the orientation on less expensive electrical actuation solutions, by maintaining or even improving, if possible, the level of performances and reliability. In this context, an important R&D effort is required on both academia and industry sectors, in a co-operative framework, enabling high level research, transfer of knowledge and training. The research programme in the frame of EMDA_LoOp follows this specific development cycle of an EMD for automotive applications, focused on the electrical machine, by taking into account all important attributes (energy performances and management, safety, driving range, comfort and noise) into the whole modelling process, i.e. from early development to detailed component design. The R&D activities during the reporting period were carried out under WP2, WP3 and WP4. The research programme followed the specific development cycle of an EMD for automotive applications, focused on the electrical machine, by taking into account all important attributes (energy performances and management, safety, driving range, comfort and noise) into the whole modelling process, i.e. from early development to detailed component design. Optimal design processes for hardware components was combined with optimal control strategies at component and vehicle level, allowing combined mechatronic optimization of all attributes at once. The research activity focused on the comparative study between two possible EMD solutions for two automotive applications (cooling fan module and ABS module), by taking into account the multi-physics and system-level nature of the design and modelling of the EMD for automotive applications. Moreover, the research was extended on other possible solutions, based on synchronous reluctance and flux-switching topologies. Besides the 20 scientific articles and three patents prepared, developed and presented during the project, one important achievement was the EMDA_LoOp platform (deliverable D7.2), connecting different software packages, open source and/or under licence, for design, modelling and testing of the machines under study. Flexible and open-architecture test benches were developed at both beneficiaries. Several dissemination activities were performed during the reporting period. In the frame of Marie Curie Open Days at UTCN the project was presented to primary, secondary and high school students and a contest was organized for the university students. The researchers involved in EMDA_LoOp from both institutions attended several events, some of them dedicated to the automotive industry and to the general public. Several training events were organized or were attended by the researchers in EMDA_LoOp, according to their professional background and needs. One important aspect to ne noted is that not only the researchers directly involved in EMDA_LoOp were attending the events, but other researchers from the beneficiaries (Brose and UTCN) had this opportunity. The recruitment package (Deliverable D.1.3) was ready on time and the vacancies were published on EURAXESS and on the website of the project. The vacancies were also advertised via IEEE, ANCS (the National Research Agency in Romania) and mail lists. Sebastian Kula (recruited researcher by UTCN) left the consortium in May 2016, after 24 months in total. Cristian Kunusch (recruited researcher by BROSE) was hired after finishing his contract under EMDA_Loop by BROSE on a permanent position. At the end of project, 76 PMs secondments were carried out in total, with 4 PMS more than included in Annex 1. These 4 PMs were possible due to the redistribution of the funds saved due to the modification of the type of the researchers (less with family charges then considered at the beginning).

Data: CORDIS, © European Union